World Bank

Conservation Refugees

Submitted by rains on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 18:59
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A LOW FOG ENVELOPES the steep and remote valleys of southwestern Uganda most mornings, as birds found only in this small corner of the continent rise in chorus and the great apes drink from clear streams. Days in the dense montane forest are quiet and steamy. Nights are an exaltation of insects and primate howling. For thousands of years the Batwa people thrived in this soundscape, in such close harmony with the forest that early-twentieth-century wildlife biologists who studied the flora and fauna of the region barely noticed their existence.

THE WORLD BANK AND FORESTS: LIES AND DECEPTION WITH WWF

Submitted by FdN on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 18:18
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In October 2002, the World Bank adopted a new policy on forests. Reversing the previous policy which had prohibited the Bank from funding projects that would destroy primary moist tropical forests, the new policy, adopted with the encouragement of the WWF, was aimed at encouraging greater involvement in forestry.
The policy was roundly condemned by many of the NGOs and Indigenous Peoples' organisations that had been involved in the lengthy consultations that had preceded its agreement. The main reasons we contested the policy were that it:

Statements: British MP condemns World Bank-backed plans for rainforest logging in the Congo

Submitted by FdN on Sun, 04/06/2008 - 09:44
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Member of Parliament Bob Blizzard (Waveney) yesterday said in a Westminster Hall debate that "there was no chance at all" that a World Bank-backed plan to 'develop' the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which are the second largest on Earth, would bring any benefits to impoverished local people. Instead, the planned expansion of the timber industry would, the MP said, damage the livelihoods of some of the poorest people on Earth, including those of local 'Pygmies'.